StsL,te.me.rvt§    of    Gte-vi,  W. 
T.    oner  man   coyvceryMnd: 


Cfte  Mbmty 

of  m 

Ontetsitp  of  BoWb  Carolina 


Collection  of  iRortl)  CaroHniana 
TO0  book  toa0  ptegenteo 


The  Statements  of  General  W.  T.  Sherman  Concerning  Jefferson 
Davis  an<l  Senator  Yance  filed  in  the  War  Department. 


K  E  M  A  K  K  S 

OF 

HON.     Z.     B.     VANCE, 

OF    NORTH    CAROLINA, 

In  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 

Tuesday,  January  13,  1885. 


The  Senate  having'  under  consideration  the  following  resolution  : 
Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  re- 
quested, if  in  his  opinion  it  be  not  incompatible  with  the  public  interest,  to 
communicate  to  the  Senate  a  historical  statement  concerning'  the  public  policy 
of  the  executive  department  of  the  Confederate  States  during  the  late  war  of 
the  rebellion,  reported  to  have  been  lately  filed  in  the  War  Department  by  Gen- 
eral William  T.  Sherman. 

The  PRESIDING  OFFICER.  The  resolution  is  before  the  Senate. 
The  question  now  is  on  agreeing  to  the  resolution,  on  which  question 
the  yeas  and  nays  have  been  ordered. 

Mr.  VANCE  said: 

Mr.  President  :  As  the  Senate  will  probably  pass  this  resolution 
and  place  upon  its  records  an  unofficial  paper,  filed  in  the  War  Depart- 
ment by  General  W.  T.  Sberman,  which  contains  statements  affecting 
certain  persons,  it  is  but  right  and  proper  that  all  persons  so  affected 
should  be  heard  in  the  same  forum.  As  one  thus  interested,  I  desire  to 
notice  some  statements  made  in  that  communication  to  the  War  Depart- 
ment. In  order  that  I  may  not  be  misinterpreted  I  have  placed  in 
writing  the  material  portions  of  what  I  desire  to  say,  which  shall  be 
very  brief. 

It  is  understood  and,  I  believe,  not  denied  that  in  a  speech  made  not 
long  since  in  Saint  Louis,  Mo. ,  General  Sherman  said  he  had  seen  a 
letter  written  by  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis  to  a  governor  of  a  Southern  State 
during  the  war,  now  a  Senator,  in  which  Mr.  Davis  threatened  the  co- 
ercion of  any  Southern  State  that  should  attempt  to  secede  from  the 
confederacy.  As  there  are,  I  believe,  three  Senators  at  least  on  this  floor 
who  were  governors  of  Southern  States  during  the  war,  myself  being 
one,  I  immediately  on  the  appearance  of  that  statement  denied  through 
the  Post  of  this  city  that  any  such  letter  had  ever  been  received  by  me. 
The  newspapers  soon  afterward  stated  that  General  Sherman  had  been 
interviewed  as  to  my  denial,  and  had  stated  that  he  had  not  alluded  to  me 


oa3X\* 


as  the  person  to  whom  the  alleged  letter  had  been  addressed.  I  very 
naturally  thought  that  this  denial  at  both  ends  of  the  line  had  con- 
cluded the  matter  so  far  as  I  was  concerned ;  but  it  seems  not.  In  the 
statement  filed  in  the  War  Department,  as  published  in  the  papers  of 
the  country,  I  find  the  following  assertion:    .. 

At  Raleigh,  though  the  mass  of  the  public  records  had  been  carried  off,  yet  a 
number  were  left  behind  at  the  state-house  and  at  the  governor's  mansion,  called 
the  "  palace,"  which  we  occupied  as  headquarters  during  our  stay  there,  name- 
ly, from  April  13  to  April  29,  1865. 

These  records  and  papers  were  overhauled  by  provosts-marshal  and  clerks, 
■who  delivered  to  Adjutant-General  Sawyer  such  as  contained  material  informa- 
tion, and  my  personal  attention  was  only  drawn  to  such  as  were  deemed  of 
sufficient  importance.  Among  the  books  collected  at  the  palace  in  Raleigh  was 
a  clerk's  or  secretary's  "  copy-book,"  containing  loose  sheets-  and  letters,  among 
which  was  the  particular  letter  of  Mr.  Davis  to  'which  I  referred  in  my  Saint 
Louis  "  speech."  I  gave  it  little  attention  at  the  time,  because  Mr.  Davis  was 
then  himself  a  fugitive,  and  his  opinions  had  little  or  no  importance,  but  it  ex- 
plained to  my  mind  why  Governor  Vance,  after  sending  to  me  commissioners 
to  treat  for  his  State  separately,  had  not  awaited  my  answer.  It  was  the  subject  of 
common  talk  about  my  headquarters  at  the  time,  or,  as  stated  by  Colonel  Dayton 
in  a  recent  letter  to  me  from  Cincinnati,  "I  am  quite  sure  that  we  generally  talked 
fthat]  it  was  the  desire  of  Governor  Vance  and  the  State  officials  to  take  North 
Carolina  out  of  the  confederacy,  as  I  have  stated,  but  they  were  afraid  of  Jeffer- 
son Davis  and  wanted  protection." 

Concerning  this  I  have  the  following  observations  to  make: 

1.  That  no  letters  or  documents  of  a  public  character  were  ever  left 
at  my  residence  in  the  governor's  mansion,  while  I  was  governor,  at 
any  time. 

2.  No  clerk  or  secretary  of  mine  ever  used  as  a  repository  for  my  cor- 
respondence a  "copy-book; "  all  official  or  public  letters  being  first  cop- 
ied in  the  letter-book  required  by  law  to  be  kept  in  the  executive  office, 
and  then  bound  into  bundles  and  placed  in  the  files,  where  they  remain 
to  this  day. 

3.  General  Sherman  did  not  find  in  that  copy-book  ' '  the  particular  let- 
ter of  Mr.  Davis  to  which  he  referred  in  his  Saint  Louis  speech, ' '  for  the 
simple  reason  that  there  was  no  such  letter  there. 

4.  I  aver  most  positively,  on  the  honor  of  a  gentleman  and  an  Amer- 
ican Senator,  that  no  letter  containing  such  a  threat  was  ever  received 
by  me  from  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis.  All  letters  from  him  to  me  of  any 
nature  are  to  be  found  copied  in  the  letter-books  of  the  executive  de- 
partment of  North  Carolina,  now  in  the  War  Department  in  this  city. 

The  reasons  given  by  General  Sherman  bv  way  of  corroborating  his 
statement  are  such  as  would  scarcely  be  relied  upon  by  a  respectable 
lawyer.  He  says  he  paid  ' '  little  attention  to  it  at  the  time, ' '  and  does 
not  say  that  he  ever  saw  it  afterward;  andfurther,  thatMr.  Daviswasthen 
himself  a  fugitive,  and  his  opinions  had  little  or  no  importance  !  It 
was,  perhaps,  the  little  attention  given  to  the  opinions  of  an  unimpor- 
tant man  that  enabled  him  to  remember  so  well  the  contents  of  the  letter 
in  which  they  were  expressed  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  twenty  years  ! 
The  suggestion  as  to  the  probable  fate  of  that  mysterious  letter,  that  it 
was  burned  in  the  great  fire  in  Chicago,  is  a  mere  apology  for  its  non- 
production,  which  at  the  same  time  contradicts  the  idea  of  its  impor- 
tance ;  for  had  it  been  such  as  he  says  it  was,  it  would  certainly  have 
found  its  way  to  the  public  files. 

But  there  is  another  matter  averred  by  General  Sherman  that  more 
nearly  concerns  me,  and  to  which  I  shall  very  briefly  ask  the  attention 
of  the  Senate.        ■ 

It  may  be  that  Northern  gentlemen  who  were  on  the  victorious  side 
during  the  civil  war  can  not  properly  appreciate  the  feelings  and  senti- 


raents  of  those  who  were  on  the  side  of  misfortune  and  defeat.  They 
seem  to  regard  it  as  qtdte  a  sin  that  we  do  not  readily  join  in  the  de- 
nunciations of  him  who  was  our  leader  in  the  war,  and  hasten  to  con- 
demn him  on  all  occasions  as  the  surest  way  of  excusing  our  conduct 
and  commending  ourselves  to  the  good  opinion  of  our  late  opponents. 
Surely  no  man  of  even  the  slightest  sense  of  honor  could  respect  a  South- 
ern man  who  would  thus  debase  himself.  Surely  the  most  flagrant 
and  rampant  trafficker  in  the  issues  of  sectional  hatred  would  prefer 
an  adversary  who  walked  upright  on  his  feet  to  the  one  who  crawled 
upon  his  belly.     If  not,  what  must  be  thought  of  his  own  manhood  ? 

Now,  sirs,  be  it  known  to  you,  that  those  of  us  who  pledged  our  faith 
to  each  other  for  the  establishment  of  the  confederacy  gave  up  all  for 
which  we  contended  when  it  failed,  retainiug  to  ourselves  only  one  sol- 
itary satisfying  reflection,  and  that  was  that  we  had  at  least  served  our 
country  faithfully,  honestly,  and  devotedly,  as  we  understood  it. 

This  satisfaction  General  Sherman's  statement  would  to  some  extent 
take  from  me,  and  this  it  is,  sir,  which  I  resent.  It  is  well  known  that  I 
was  drawn  into  secession  unwillingly  ;  it  is  also  well  known  that  in  re- 
gard to  many  of  the  details  of  administration  I  was  at  variance  with  the 
authorities  of  the  confederate  government;  but  it  is  equally  well  knownr 
I  hope,  that,  after  my  own  honor  was  engaged  and  the  honor  of  my 
native  State,  there  never  was  an  hour  during  all  that  unhappy  time 
in  which  I  did  not  give  every  energy  of  my  body,  mind,  and  soul  to 
the  success  of  the  cause  to  which  I  had  pledged  my  allegiance.  Gen- 
eral Sherman,  professing  high  respect  for  me,  for  which  I  thank  him, 
thinks,  perhaps,  that  he  does  me  a  kindness  and  commends  me  to  the 
people  of  the  country  by  holding  out  the  idea  that  I  was  disaffected 
while  Governor  toward  the  cause  for  which  I  was  ostensibly  fighting,  and 
that  I  was  anxious  to  separate  myself  and  State  from  the  confederacy, 
but  was  restrained  by  fear.  Sir,  I  want  no  man's  respect  or  good-will 
based  on  the  supposed  virtues  of  treason  to  my  country  and  the  deser- 
tion of  my  associates.  The  good-will  of  a  man  who  would  respect  these 
traits  in  another  is  not  worth  picking  up  from  the  dust  of  the  common 
highways.  General  Sherman  says  that  the  commissioners  whom  I 
sent  to  meet  him  as  he  approached  Ealeigh,  to  wit,  ex-Governor  Swain 
and  ex-Governor  Graham  and  Surgeon-General  Warren,  told  him  that 
I  wanted  to  make  separate  terms  for  the  State,  but  was  afraid  of  '  'Jeff 
Davis."  I  do  not  believe  it.  It  can  not  be  true.  The  two  gentlemen 
first  named  are  dead;  they  were  eminent  North  Carolinians,  of  most 
exalted  character  in  all  respects,  and  most  especially  for  truth.  They 
knew  I  was  faithful  to  the  confederacy;  they  knew  that  I  was  not 
afraid  of  opposing  Mr.  Davis  when  I  differed  from  him,  because  they 
had  seen  me  constantly  doing  it,  and  they  never  told  General  Sherman 
or  any  other  living  man  the  contrary  of  what  they  knew  to  be  true  as 
perfectly  as  any  men  in  North  Carolina. 

The  other  commissioner,  Dr.  Edward  Warren,  was  surgeon-general 
of  the  State  of  North  Carolina,  is  now  living,  and  is  an  eminent  phy- 
sician in  Paris.  His  statement  would  surely  carry  as  much  proof  of 
what  was  said  there  as  that  of  the  witness  cited  to  prove  that  there 
was  talk  about  camp  of  "  the  desire  of  Governor  Vance  and  other  State 
officials  to  take  North  Carolina,  out  of  the  confederacy,  but  they  were 
afraid  of  Jeff.  Davis  and  wanted  protection."  True  it  is  that  I  sent  a 
commission  to  him  under  a  flag  of  truce  to  ask  protection,  not  separate 
terms  for  the  people  of  my  State,  but  at  that  moment  the  war  was  vir- 
tually ended.     Lee  had  surrendered,  Eichmond  had  fallen,  President 


Davis  and  his  official  household  were  fugitives,  and  General  Johnston, 
commanding  the  last  remnant  of  an  army  devoted  to  the  South,  was 
about  to  march  westward,  no  one  knew  whither,  and  uncover  the  cap- 
ital of  the  State.  With  his  consent  .and  approbation  that  embassy  was 
sent,  and  through  his  lines  under  his  permit  it  went.  Before  its  return 
Kaleigh  was  uncovered  and  I  had  left  to  join"  Mr.  Davis,  at  Charlotte, 
where  the  surrender  of  General  Johnston  was  authorized  and  the  final- 
ity of  things  brought  about.  Then  and  there  I  took  my  leave  of  Mr. 
Davis  and  of  the  confederacy,  and  went  back  with  his  full  approbation 
to  share  the  fate  of  my  people. 

General  Sherman  finds  an  explanation  of  my  failure  to  await  the  re- 
turn of  my  embassy  in  the  contents  of  the  mysterious  letter — that  I 
was  afraid  of  Davis,  then  a  fugitive  without  an  army.  Bold  enough 
he  says  I  was  to  send  an  embassy  to  the  enemy,  but  I  was  afraid  to 
await  its  return !  Was  ever  conclusion  more  absurd  ?  The  reason  why 
I  did  not  wait  was  that  I  had  been  told  my  embassy  after  passing 
through  the  confederate  lines  had  been  captured  by  Kilpatrick's  cav- 
alry, promptly  robbed  of  their  personal  effects,  and  taken  before  Gen- 
eral Sherman  as  prisoners.  Not  returning  up  to  midnight  of  the  day 
on  which  they  were  sent,  I  concluded  this  to  be  true,  and  left  with  the 
retreating  troops. 

How  well  and  how  faithfully  I  served  the  lost  cause  the  country 
knows.  My  own  people,  sir,  about  whose  opinion  I  am  most  concerned, 
will  wonder  that  anybody  can  be  found  to  question  it. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032725285 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


